Loyalty
by One Lucky Unicorn
Summary: Why, out of all the animals in the world, did Harry's daemon have to be a dog? [Rating kicked up to a T for one instance of language.]


When Harry was small, his daemon was constantly changing shape, just like any other child's. A mouse hiding shyly in his hair one moment, a kid goat spiritedly bounding alongside him across the lawn the next. Or a bright-eyed robin perched on his shoulder. When Harry had turned sixteen, she finally settled, again, just like every child's. But as a dog, much to Norman's great disappointment.

Norman just couldn't understand it. Dogs simply were not meant for Osbornes. No one in the family had ever had a daemon who settled as dog before. His Astrakan was a big cat, a mountain lion. Even his bastard of a father had had a Eurasian eagle owl. Personally, Norman thought he deserved the likes of a snail, or a vulture perhaps. Harry's daemon being a dog seemed like yet another disappointment in a string of several for the boy. She wasn't even an impressive breed of dog, like a German shepherd or a Doberman. She was a whippet, a scrawny little wisp of a thing. Honestly, it was an embarrassment.

After the entire awful Goblin fiasco though, Norman's disposition towards Aloisa, as Harry's daemon was called, had started to gradually soften. She wasn't that bad, really. He was looking at a lot of things differently these days. But he still didn't understand why Aloisa was a dog.

Norman would receive the answer to this very question in the most unexpected way one night. Recently he'd begun moonlighting as a crimefighter, calling himself Iron Patriot (oh yes, he was going to make for every bad thing he'd ever done, before and after becoming the Goblin). He first encountered Spider-Man while battling the Frightful Four. Initially there was some… friction between the two of them (understandably; Norman knew his quest wasn't going to be an easy one).

The next time they crossed paths, they were ambushed by Octavius and his Spider Soldiers. Although he and Spider-Man gave a good account of themselves, Norman soon found himself in need of another palladium battery for his armor. The battle would come to a head inside his lab when their enemies followed them in. At that exact moment Harry had walked in, much to Norman's dismay and dread. For one he wasn't ready for Harry to find out what he had been up to, and he _certainly_ didn't want his deranged ex-employee or his abominations anywhere near his son. He ordered Spider-Man to get Harry to safety while he destroyed the Spider Soldiers.

Now he and Astrakan were searching the building for them. Norman's armored suit, damaged during the fighting, was now throwing off sparks. Even under the layers of sturdy metal and circuitry he could tell that he was going to have a few bruises in the morning, and his walk was slower than usual. A concerned Astrakan stuck close by, willing to support him with her powerful bulk if he required it. She came to an abrupt stop, her tawny head raised as her ears swiveled forward in the same instance, a sign that something had captured her attention. After a moment, Norman could hear it for himself - Harry's voice raised in anger.

"Get away! You tried to kill me and my dad!"

Drawing closer, they could see that it was Spider-Man was the target of his wrath. Aloisa mirrored her human counterpart's outrage. Her white scissor fangs were bared in a snarl at the hapless costumed hero and his spider monkey daemon, who chittered uneasily from her perch on his shoulder. She and Spider-Man both seemed at a loss as to how to respond. Harry's reaction didn't surprise Norman. Over time Harry had come to develop a strong dislike for Spider-Man, he knew.

"No, son." Norman's gentle censure caused Harry to start. "Spider-Man's been helping us. He's always helped us."

Almost immediately Aloisa dropped her aggressive stance, while Harry's gaze flickered uncertainly between him and Spider-Man. "Really? Dad -"

Everybody seemed to be at lost for words. Even Spider-Man, amazingly enough. But Norman and Harry didn't need to talk in that moment. They let their actions speak for them.

As father and son warmly embraced, relieved that everything had turned alright, that's when it finally hit Norman. Dogs were famous for one trait above all, loyalty. Harry had never given up on him, even in his darkest hour. He was confident that he could be cured and returned to normal. Even with Norman's coldness towards him in the past and everything the Goblin had done, Harry still believed in him.

Yes, a dog fit Harry perfectly.

 **Author's note:** I was sorely disappointed to see that nobody has apparently written any platonic family fluff for Harry and Norman (or anything positive towards this version of Norman period), so as always, I took it upon myself to rectify this problem. Then I decided to drag  His Dark Materials into it.


End file.
